10Best Car Parts for Home Décor

Mike Finney and his brother, Thomas, grew up around their dad’s service station near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. They love cars so much that they turn them into desks—well, at least this one, a C5 Corvette, painted the 50th-anniversary colors. The wood is oak, the sides are fiberglass over a frame, and, sure, the taillights work.

Beats anything we’ve seen by Warhol. Tom Stirzaker of Harlingen, Texas, “coaxed” 177,000 miles from his ’74 Buick Regal, and in 1990, asked his sister, Ellen Cohen, an interior designer, if she could do something artistic with some of the old parts. Stirzaker recalls: “Remember the era of points and condensers? Oh, what fun I had keeping that bucket of bolts going for so long.”__________________________________________________________________________________

This engine blew up in a 1999 drag race—Gary Scelzi at the wheel—in such a violent manner that Keith Burgan has installed a mirror below the table so visitors to his home can feel the fear by witnessing the gaping hole out the back of the block. Now it’s just a harmless coffee table.__________________________________________________________________________________

His Indianapolis home is decorated with many refurbished NHRA castoffs, including this lamp that was once the 75-pound crankshaft in John Force’s Funny Car.__________________________________________________________________________________

Jay Radoff of Boynton Beach, Florida, created this barkfree dog in 1967 using Pontiac and Chevy pistons, a crankshaft, and a pair of motorcycle pistons.__________________________________________________________________________________

Curt Gobbell of Lakeland, Tennessee, had big plans for his 11-year-old son’s room. They included Lamborghini doors and making a Porsche whale tail into a bench. Didn’t happen. But he did find a really chewed-up front end of an ’81 Camaro. The wire-mesh grille was his idea. Flick the hidden switch, and the headlights come on.